There’s the recent story of the Denver Bronco’s fan, Paul Kitterman, that attended the Broncos game in Denver last Thursday evening with his stepson and two friends. His stepson had gone to the restroom during the game, and Kitterman had been waiting outside for him. When his stepson came out of the restroom, Kitterman was no longer around. The stepson and the friends stayed at the stadium until 1:00 in the morning searching everywhere for Kitterman. He was reported missing. He didn’t have his cell phone or credit cards with him, only about $50 in cash.
Police were hesitant to get involved as didn’t appear that a crime had been committed. Facebook pages, flyers, pleas to the media were put out for missing Paul Kitterman.
Five days later, the following Tuesday night, Kitterman is located over 100 miles away in Pueblo, CO. He is fine, seen outside of a furniture store, whose employees call police, as they recognize him as the missing Bronco fan.
Kitterman apparently, just decided to leave the game as he had had enough football. He even ditched his Bronco’s cap, as he didn’t want to be recognized. He supposedly was going to visit a woman he knew in Pueblo. He told police that he slept in treed and bushy areas along the road during his 100 mile journey. He also told police he wanted to get some place warmer.
This is a guy that worked on a ranch for one of the people that he went to the game with. According to his family, he has no mental problems, no drug abuse problems, no reason for him to disappear, especially leaving his stepson at the game. But he did.
So, have any of you ever just taken off and not told anyone…your employer, your family?
I haven’t, but have relatives and friends who have.
To my way of thinking, it’s rude and slightly dangerous.
They, free spirits and ramblin’ men, seem to like the sense of freedom of a spontaneous leap out onto the old highway. “Hey, let’s go to Santa Fe.” Ten minutes to pack, and gone. Why tell anyone? None of their business, right?
Not my way of doing things, but they’d feel trammeled by my more bureaucratic approach. Hold the mail, keys to the neighbor, itinerary to family, route-map from the Auto Club, etc.
The first thing that came to mind when I head about the Denver guy was that he must have some kind of mental illness or depression or something. There is something the family isn’t saying.
I know a guy whose 65-year-old mother simply vanished from their home a few weeks ago and is still missing. Her jacket was gone but she left her purse and keys. There was no evidence of foul play, and she had been dealing with depression. I strongly suspect that she wandered off.
The closest I’ve come to this was when I was in college, we’d often take the hour-long train ride into NYC on weekends. The first few times were fun, because everyone was so excited that they wouldn’t mind dropping everything to head out for the night.
As time went on, the utter enthusiasm wore off, and scheduling became more difficult. (“Well, I want to come, but can we leave in a few hours?”, “I have to study for a test, so we’ll need to get back by 9 am.”, etc.) People would get upset if you laid down hard deadlines of when we were leaving and returning, and if you’d mention that you were going, they’d take it as an invitation to tag along.
So, I started slipping away every now and then, without telling any of my classmates. Knowing that it could be dangerous to not let anyone know where I was going to be, I’d call a high school friend who lived a thousand miles away, and would tell him of my plans, and that if I didn’t call and check in with him by a certain time the next day, to notify someone. Otherwise, he was the only one who would know where I was. (This was soon after 9/11 so I figured it was smarter to be safe than sorry)
I thought you meant like from a party or something. Of course I have. But ditching your stepson at a crowded sports stadium is shitty, even if he’s an adult.
Taking off without telling your family and friends is pretty inconsiderate, but it is within everyone’s rights.
Yeah, not cool. There was a case this summer in Cleveland where a guy went off to buy beer at a concert at the Cleveland Indians’ stadium and never returned. They found his body later in a landfill. He had either been pushed into or somehow wandered into one of the stadium’s trash compactors.
There’s just no reason to put your family and/or friends through that for no reason.
Taking off to be alone when no one has reason to expect you to be in a certain place, that’s fine.
I’ve never done it, tho. My family and I are just too nosy/close.
There have certainly been situations in which there was, shall we say, disagreement as to whether or not I needed to notify someone before leaving town. I’ve never done it when it interfered with any actual responsibilities to anyone, though.
I live alone and don’t talk to any family daily, so every time I take off I do so without telling anyone.
However I do bring a phone so I am not totally out of touch.
Although I was really dumb and took off without telling anyone and drove 6 hours roundtrip in a very remote area of Montana/Wyoming that I had never been to before, so if anything had happened to me, I would have been crow fodder.
The guy just walked out of the stadium, with little money and no car, walked and hitch-hiked for five days (!), and hadn’t arrived anywhere in particular when he was found. I’m betting there’s some form of mental impairment–early-onset dementia, or a small stroke, or head trauma, or something. This is too weird to be garden-variety eccentricity or jerkishness.
There are definite advantages to the single lifestyle - esp if you do well-paying, short-term contract work.
In 1972 I decided I’d like to drive across the US - in 1991, after no vacations in over 20 years, I finally pulled it off.
Good thing I did it then - I no longer have either the health or the money.
If you want to do it, do it while you are young enough to enjoy it - worrying about the quality of the beds in the motel you schedule yourself into a month in advance is not the hallmark of a fun adventure…
I think it is R-U-N-N-O-F-T (if you are referring to the line from O’ Brother, Where Art Thou?).
I used to think about doing this - just taking off for some far horizon. I never did, and just planned a few road trip with very loose itineraries. By myself. Now that I am a supposedly responsible adult, I only dream of disappearing for a few days, but will not take any action.
I agree with **Freddy the Pig **- seems more like a medical/mental situation.
QFT. I have a couple-friends who are doing just that right now. Two months, driving, camping, and hotel diving all over North America. They’re having a blast, and he’s a photographer so the pics they’re posting to facebook and putting on her blog are fantastic.
And I agree about the guy in the OP, there’s something going on there that no one’s telling.